Movies

Meg Ryan (born Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra; November 19, 1961) is an American actress. She made her acting debut in 1981 in the drama film Rich and Famous. She joined the cast of the CBS soap opera As the World Turns in 1982. In the 1980s, Ryan appeared in Top Gun, Promised Land (1987) and the Rob Reiner-directed romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally... (1989), for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination.

A prolific actress through the 1990s and 2000s, Ryan appeared in Joe Versus the Volcano (1990), The Doors (1991), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), When a Man Loves a Woman (1994), French Kiss (1995), Courage Under Fire (1996), Anastasia (1997), Addicted to Love (1997), You've Got Mail (1998), City of Angels (1998), Proof of Life (2000), Kate & Leopold (2001), and The Women (2008). In 2015, she made her directorial debut with Ithaca, in which she also starred. Ryan is making her return to the screen in the upcoming romantic comedy What Happens Later (2023), which she also directed.

Early life
Ryan was born and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut, to Susan Jordan (née Duggan), a former actress and English teacher, and Harry Hyra, a math teacher. Her father is of Polish descent. She was raised Catholic and attended St. Pius X Elementary School in Fairfield. She has two sisters, Dana and Annie, and a brother, musician Andrew Hyra, a member of the band Billy Pilgrim. Her parents divorced in 1976 when she was 15.

Ryan graduated from Bethel High School in 1979. She studied journalism as an undergraduate, first at the University of Connecticut and then at New York University. During college, she acted in television commercials and the soap opera As the World Turns to earn extra money. Her success as an actress led her to leave college a semester before she planned to graduate. When she joined the Screen Actors Guild, she used the surname "Ryan", her grandmother's maiden name.